Gunmen attempt to enter Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant

Ukrainian police stopped a group of armed men from entering Europe's largest nuclear power plant, located in southeastern Ukraine. In video footage allegedly showing the attempted break-in, the men say they are members of the Right Sector group.

The gunmen were stopped Thursday at the entrance of the city of
Energodar, near Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, the facility's
press service said in a Friday statement on its website.

The power plant’s authorities said the incident did not affect
the station’s operations. However, security at the plant and
throughout Energodar has been heightened.

Several cars full of men who introduced themselves as members of
the notorious neo-Nazi group Right Sector were stopped at a
checkpoint near Energodar, Ukraine’s Komsomolskaya Pravda
newspaper reported. The men were wearing masks, had guns, and
said that they were headed to “protect the nuclear power
plant and the city from possible seizures,” according to the
paper.

“We moved out to protect the city, but we were stopped and
circled by police,” a Right Sector member told RBK Ukraine.

Local police said they confiscated the men’s weapons and launched
a criminal investigation.

Footage posted on Svoboda TV's YouTube account on Thursday –
allegedly shot during the attempted break-in – shows a group of
masked men preparing to enter Energodar.

In the footage, the men say they are members of the Right Sector
in Zaporizhia (Zaporozhye) region, adding that they came to
protect Energodar from activists who wanted to “hoist Russian
flags” in the city.
“The Right Sector got hold of information that pro-Russian
activists are preparing to change [Ukrainian] flags to Russian at
the check points of Energodar city. The Right Sector moved
forward to prevent this,” one man says.

The men in the video are holding Ukrainian flags and shouting
nationalist slogans including, “Heroes don’t die! Glory to
Ukraine! Glory to heroes!”

However, on its official website, the Right Sector denied that
its men wanted to seize the station.

“There was misinformation [in the media] that this group
belongs to the Right Sector,” the statement on the far-right
group’s website reads. “The Right Sector officially notifies
that it had and has no plans to storm the Zaporizhia nuclear
power plant.”

Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant is the largest nuclear power plant
(NPP) not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe, according to the
operator of Ukrainian NPPs. It is situated in the steppe zone of
Ukraine, on the bank of the Kakhovka water reservoir. The plant
generates 40-42 billion kWh per year, which accounts for
one-fifth of the average annual electricity production in Ukraine
and almost 47 percent of electricity generated at Ukrainian
nuclear power plants.

Previously, Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh threatened to
destroy Russian pipelines supplying gas to Europe through
Ukrainian territory. Moscow put Yarosh on the international
wanted list and charged him with inciting terrorism after he
urged Chechen terrorist leader Doku Umarov to launch attacks on
Russia.

Right Sector group members were very active in the violence which
triggered the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovich in February.
The group’s fighters used clubs, petrol bombs, and firearms
against Ukrainian police and have been wearing Nazi insignia.

The group has adopted an extreme, anti-Russian stance and moved
its headquarters from Kiev to the eastern city of Dnepropetrovsk
in April.

Right Sector members have been identified among the National
Guard forces, which were formed after the coup and are loyal to
Kiev authorities. National Guard battalions have been involved in
the punitive military operation against pro-federalization
activists in southeastern Ukraine, in which many have been killed
or wounded.

Among the latest violence was the massacre in the southern
Ukrainian city of Odessa on May 2, when clashes erupted between
anti-government protesters and radicals supporting the
coup-imposed authorities in Kiev. Forty-eight people were killed
and over 200 injured as nationalists burnt the protester camp and
set fire to the Trade Unions House with anti-Kiev activists
trapped inside. Many of those who managed to escape the flames
were then beaten to death by nationalists, according to
witnesses.